I hope they counted the silverware in the White House:
Former President Donald Trump agreed to return ancient artifacts after Israel’s antiquities authority launched a public campaign to get them back.
The story of how the ceramic oil lamps, which are part of Israel’s national treasures collection, ended up at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort is complicated. It is a saga in which the artifacts made a near-visit to the White House, sat in a California closet for months and were then taken through an X-ray machine in Florida before being delivered to Trump.
“These historic items were presented by a representative of the Israeli antiquities authority with the full support of the organization,” a Trump spokesman said Wednesday, adding that the items were on loan for permanent exhibition. “As the items were displayed as originally intended, the office will be expediting their return to the organization’s representative,” he said.
Their modern-day journey began in 2019, when Saul Fox, a private-equity executive, longtime Republican donor and backer of Israel, got a call from Israel Hasson, then head of the Israeli antiquities authority, saying he was coming to the U.S. and would like to meet him. Fox had just been invited to a Hanukkah party at the White House and suggested that Trump be presented with antiquities from Jerusalem in honor of his support for Israel.
Hasson traveled to Fox’s home in California with a black Samsonite carry-on containing a priceless collection of lamps and coins, which were intended to be displayed temporarily at the White House for a few weeks and then returned, Hasson said in an interview.
The items in the Samsonite bag next made it to Washington—but not the White House.
Fox, in an interview, said the State Department wanted to inspect them but didn’t return them in time for the Hanukkah celebration. “I was a little embarrassed,” he said. Several State Department officials said Wednesday that they couldn’t recall the encounter.
About three months later, Fox hired a courier to travel to Washington to retrieve the items, paying for an extra airplane seat to keep them at his courier’s side. At home in California, Fox locked up the bag “and sort of forgot about it.”
Then Covid hit and the world shut down, delaying any return to Israel.
In late 2021, Fox received an invitation to attend a candlelight dinner at Mar-a-Lago, which was during the Hanukkah period.
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“There’s a Yiddish word, ‘bashert’—meaning made to be,” said Fox.
He reached out again to Hasson, who was no longer in his position at the antiquities authority. “And this is another bashert,” Fox said. “He told me, ‘Saul, I just so happen to have a breakfast meeting tomorrow with the new director, and I’ll ask him.’ ” After a Zoom call with Fox and the director, Eli Eskosido, a plan was made to take the items to Trump. Fox’s girlfriend crafted a black display box. A card explained the items and stipulated that they were on loan.
Off to Florida from California they went. The Secret Service insisted on taking the box to an X-ray machine. Finally, Fox was inside Mar-a-Lago with the box, and he met Trump in his office. After a few minutes, the former president stood up and said he had to get ready for dinner.
“I stood in his way and said, ‘Mr. President, no, no, you can’t leave, I have these words that I wrote,’ ” Fox told him. He read his prepared remarks praising Trump’s stance on Israel, including the move of the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem. Trump slammed his hand on his desk, Fox said, and barked, “Well, how come I only got 25% of the Jewish vote?”
“I thought quickly and said, ‘Mr. President, I know you’ve had your problems with Rinos—Republicans in name only—well, we Jews in America have our problem with Jinos, Jews in name only, like Adam Schiff and Chuck Schumer,’ ” referring to the California Democratic House member and the Senate majority leader from New York.
“Yes, that’s right,” Trump said. “Very good. Let’s go now.” At dinner, Fox and his girlfriend sat at a table with Trump and his wife, Melania. “It was beautiful,” he said.
Rewind a bit.
Fox said he was sitting in the Mar-a-Lago lobby when he got an email from Eskosido: “He said there’s been some kind of miscommunication. You have to bring these back immediately to Israel.” Fox asked his girlfriend, who works in tech, whether anyone would know if he read the email. Yes, she said, but he decided to go forward.
“This permanent exhibition of Israel’s national treasures outside of the State of Israel in your honor is without precedent,” he told Trump. Fox in the interview said the agreement never came with a return date for the items. They weren’t Trump’s, but he effectively would act as their custodian, Fox said.
A couple months later, he said, he got a call from a man in the U.S. who reiterated that Israel wanted the items back. Fox said it was offensive to do so. “This was something that was promised and done and I acted on it in good faith,” Fox said.
Fox said he didn’t hear anything again until this week when friends began sending him copies of articles about how the Israeli antiquities authority was seeking the artifacts, an effort that was earlier reported by Haaretz, an Israeli newspaper.
Hasson, who negotiated the original 2019 arrangement, said, “Saul Fox operated transparently with the antiquities authority.”
Is there any crank and weirdo in America who isn’t compulsively attracted to Donald Trump? Birds of a feather …